Afin de mieux comprendre le succès spectaculaire des récits policiers de Fred Vargas, la thèse s’efforce de resituer l’auteure dans le paysage éditorial, analyse son positionnement dans les trois sous-catégories du genre policier, et vise à mettre en lumière la fonction cathartique dans sa création littéraire. L’étude porte par conséquent sur les mutations romanesques et la diffusion transnationale et multimédiatique des œuvres de Fred Vargas, sur un corpus concernant essentiellement le cycle des Trois Evangélistes et le cycle du Commissaire Adamsberg. Des approches complémentaires sont mobilisées, relevant de la sociologie de la littérature, de l’analyse textuelle et de la psychologie des émotions dans une conception pragmatique. On parvient ainsi à comprendre comment Fred Vargas, en l’espace de trente ans, est consacrée “Reine du polar français" par la critique journalistique, qui célèbre sa posture singulière et contribue à sa reconnaissance médiatique et symbolique. Polareuse atypique, l’auteure mixe en effet différents sous-genres policiers et propose une œuvre originale fondée sur un art avéré du décalage, qui résiste aux tentatives de classification mais procure un plaisir consolatoire au lecteur. / In order to have a better understanding of the impressive success of Fred Vargas' detective novels, this thesis endeavours to place the writer in editorial landscape, analyses her positioning among the sub-categories of crime fiction, and aims to clarify the cathartic function in her literary creation. As a result, the study is about novelistic mutations, about transmedia and transnational spreading of Fred Vargas' works, with a corpus basically relating to the serie of the Three Evangelists and the serie of Commissaire Adamsberg. Some further approaches come from sociology of literature, textual analysis, and psychology of emotions in a pragmatic way. In this way, we can understand how Fred Vargas, within thirty years, was recognized as “the Queen of French crime novel" by literary critics, who celebrate her specific position and contribute to her mediatic and symbolic recognition. As an atypical author of detective novels, Fred Vargas mixes different sub-genres of crime fiction and proposes an original work based on an established art of “décalage", resisting to classification attempts, but providing a comforting pleasure to the reader.

班雅明在拱廊計畫中專章探討布爾喬亞室內空間概念的思想理論啟發了本論文。在資本主義盛行工業革命興起的十九世紀，室內空間成為中產階級儲存財產、保障私人安全舒適、以及抵禦外在威脅的所在，然而班雅明不僅僅質疑這種布爾喬亞室內空間的穩固，他更直接點出中產階級表面上寄託於室內空間，潛意識卻也不信任其牢靠。而我將延續班雅明的論點解讀十九世紀偵探文類中屢屢發生的室內犯罪，這樣的劇情設計事實上就是投射了偵探文類中產階級讀者對於室內空間潛在的焦慮。本論文以班雅明為基礎，使用艾徳加．愛倫坡和柯南道爾的偵探短篇小說，探討這些作品如何呈現布爾喬亞室內空間，作者如何回應室內空間的議題，以及偵探在布爾喬亞室內空間中扮演什麼樣的角色，同時從十九世紀初的艾倫波到十九世紀末的柯南道爾，我也欲探討布爾喬亞室內空間從都市化初期到都市化末期中產階級移往郊區定居的過程中所發生的轉變。本文認為，愛倫坡和柯南道爾的偵探故事中藉由顯示室內空間的危險與不穩定挑戰了傳統的布爾橋亞室內空間觀。 / Walter Benjamin’s conceptualization of the bourgeois interior inspired this dissertation. As the nineteenth century witnessed capitalism and Industrial Revolution, the domestic interior served the bourgeoisie to store property, ensure comfort and security, and withstand the outdoor dangers. However, Benjamin not only questions the impregnability of this bourgeois interior but also directly points out the bourgeoisie’s unconscious anxiety over the interior despite their conscious confidence in it. Using Benjamin’s theory as my critical framework, I analyze the frequent occurrences of domestic crimes in the nineteenth-century detective genre. This formula, I argue, projects its middle-class readers’ anxiety over the domestic space as the domestic space is repeatedly invaded and disturbed by crimes. Based on Benjamin’s theory, I use Edgar Allen Poe and Conan Doyle’s detective stories to explore how these works depict the bourgeois interior, how their authors address the issues about the bourgeois interior, and what role the detective plays, a protector or a transgressor, when involved into the invasions of the bourgeois interior. From Poe at the beginning of the nineteenth century to Doyle at the end, I also examine the changes of the bourgeois interior during the process of the middle class’ migration from the city center to suburbs. I argue that both Poe’s and Doyle’s detective stories challenges the ideology of bourgeois spatiality by showing the interior is unsafe and unstable against the bourgeoisie’s imagination.

This comparative study focuses on the detective genre and is conducted through literary analysis with a feminist critical perspective of two of its most iconic protagonists, Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887 and Agatha Christie in 1930 respectively. The purpose is to attempt to establish the effect of the gender differences on these two protagonists. Both Holmes and Miss Marple are deemed as iconic in the detective genre, but the protagonists do not have similar experiences and are created by authors of different genders. Thus, the focus is to explore how gender differences are represented in the literary texts A Study in Scarlet (1887), “A Scandal in Bohemia” (1891), and The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) when it comes to their work as detectives. By using a feminist critical perspective and with the help of previous research, the differences in three central issues, that is, work methods, attitudes and method of disguise, are established. The most prominent result from the analysis is that Miss Marple has to work independently from the police force and trust another character, Leonard Clement, with what she knows hoping that Clement will use her observations to make the case move forward. By contrast, Holmes is approached by clients and even assists the police force in investigations, while Miss Marple is dismissed because of gender discrimination and ageism when she reaches out to the police force. Miss Marple is clearly a victim of gender discrimination and ageism, while Holmes is seen as eccentric but fully competent as a detective. Holmes is even described as having “extraordinary powers” while Miss Marple is described as an “old pussy” in a derogatory manner. Therefore, the results are that there is a significant difference in attitude where Holmes as a man encounters more positive attitudes and Miss Marple as a woman encounters more negative attitudes, all because of gender discrimination and ageism. These results are of great importance as it reveals what gender differences Holmes and Miss Marple encounter in their literary texts. It opens up the opportunity for more research in gender differences and gender discrimination in comparisons between protagonists. That Miss Marple is successful in the end, however, functions as a feminist statement.

This study b·aces the development of the Shona clctective story as a genre different from rhe mainstream Shona novel. The Shona detective story emerges from the non-detective traditional folktale and develops into rhree types, namely, the rudimentary form. the pure 'whoduniC, and the detectivethriller. An attempt is made to show that when the Shona detective story first appeared it was quite elementary and showed signs of me influence of Shona traditional folklore. But later on authors developed the detective narrative into pure 'whodunits' and detective-mrillers which showed influence of Western ftlms and English detective stories. The study ends with the argument that although at its highest level of development the Shona detective story manifests characteristics that make it a unique genre different from other Shona novels its treatment of female characters is not very different from their treatment in the mainstream Shona novel. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

This study b·aces the development of the Shona clctective story as a genre different from rhe mainstream Shona novel. The Shona detective story emerges from the non-detective traditional folktale and develops into rhree types, namely, the rudimentary form. the pure 'whoduniC, and the detectivethriller. An attempt is made to show that when the Shona detective story first appeared it was quite elementary and showed signs of me influence of Shona traditional folklore. But later on authors developed the detective narrative into pure 'whodunits' and detective-mrillers which showed influence of Western ftlms and English detective stories. The study ends with the argument that although at its highest level of development the Shona detective story manifests characteristics that make it a unique genre different from other Shona novels its treatment of female characters is not very different from their treatment in the mainstream Shona novel. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)